The present application relates to systems, methods, and computer program products for implementing integrated logistics queries.
Many types of business logic are implemented by software applications, such as enterprise software applications. For example, many enterprise applications are focused on business logic to perform logistics operations such as supply chain management. A warehouse management system is one type of enterprise application that is often used to manage and track data pertaining to a supply chain. These systems are employed to control the movement and storage of materials within a warehouse and to process associated transactions pertaining to inventory for the warehouse. Such transactions include, for example, including inventory management, shipping, receiving, put-away, and picking transactions. Therefore, warehouse management systems are used to handle the receipt, storage, and movement of goods for customers and companies.
In the context of distribution centers, users of warehouse management systems often require the ability to review inventory availability, as well as the relationship between items at a given location, and also the license plate groupings for a particular group of items. This information is often needed at locations where a computer or workstation with access to logistics programs is not available. For example, a supply chain manager in the middle of a large warehouse might need access to logistics information but is not near the appropriate workstation with inventory programs, which may be hundreds of feet away, or in a different building, for instance.
This makes it difficult for the user to determine the structure of items in the given location. For example, it becomes very difficult to determine whether a given item relates to a pallet, case, box, and/or each (“EA”) structure, if any. Further, within a license plate controlled branch, a user also needs to determine license plates that group items and lots for that location.
Therefore, with conventional management systems, users within a distribution center do not have the ability to view item information originating from either the inventory, warehouse, or license plate systems. Users are forced to use three different system applications to view the item availability for a given item, lot, location, license plate, and warehouse detail structure, all of which a user in a remote location may not have access to. Instead, they are required to find a workstation to view the logistics information, which slows down operational and logistics efficiency, and worse, a user who does not have the time or access to a workstation may be forced to make guesses, which may be incorrect, about item inventory and other logistics information.
As is evident, there is a need for an improved approach that addresses these problems associated with the prior approaches to implement enterprise applications and logistics queries.